Autumn Laoshan Green [duplicate]

Time to compare the three green teas I have from Verdant, so I can work towards identifying favourites.

I brewed each of the teas more or less according to the parameters on Verdant’s website for western brewing, although I used more than 1tsp of leaf. For this one, I think I used a generous two 1/2 tsps, so probably 1.5 tsps with 250ml water.

First infusion:
The smell of the dry leaf is very… dry leafy. What can I say? It smells like rolling around in autumn leaves. Not an uncommon smell. I’m getting a bit of a hint of seaweed, which is interesting…. no, actually a strong seaweed smell. Makes me crave sushi, even though I was at an all-you-can-eat on Friday evening.

The aroma emanating from the steeped cup is gentle and kind of brothy/seaweedy.

Oh, yum. The sip first tastes sweet, followed by delicate, sweet seaweed flavours. The aftertaste is so sweet, and creamy. I’m getting… caramel? Holy. Yes, definitely caramel. Delicious, delicious caramel. There is definitely astringency present, and though I don’t always like it, it just goes with the whole flavour profile here. I feel like perhaps if I had used just a single teaspoon of dry tea, it may not have appeared. No bitterness though. Oops, I just about finished the cup – I meant to save some for directly comparing to the other two teas!

Second infusion (2.5min/175F):
The aroma is sweet and vegetal. Oh… I think I messed this one up. Too much astringency for me :( This will teach me to play around with Verdant’s parameters. I can definitely still taste the caramel aftertaste though. This would have been an excellent cup had I paid attention to the instructions.

To me, this is definitely more like a green tea to me than the others, but that caramel aftertaste really sets it apart from other greens I’ve tried. If I’m looking for flavour with a lingering candy-like sweetness, this one would be my choice.

ETA: I cannot get over this aftertaste! Definitely want to try again to make sure I can get it a second time, but wow.

Most folks who’ll be reviewing this tea will probably do so from the perspective of evaluating Lao Shan tea as a whole. I love Lao Shan greens, and I’ve had so many different kinds, qualities, and seasons, so this one is more focused on what makes this Autumn picking unique from the others, appreciated for its own strengths.

The dry smell from the bag is undeniably of cocoa.. of cocao nibs in particular. That’s somethig I find to be consistant across all Lao Shan teas in recent memory. I wonder why I never noticed that in Qingdao? Probably because I was living there, so I never took the time to stick my face in the bags and smell and appreciate. Also- no chocolate in Qingdao[ :*-( ], so maybe I lost my context. Why chocolate? Probably has something to do with that distinctive beany Lao Shan taste.

Consulting my notes, I see that the steeped leaves have a “delicious smell.” Hmm, usually I write more, but what can you say to that? Must have kept me from writing anything else.

The taste is crisp, lively, and subtle. It is certainly sweet, and there is something in the flavor that is making it positively addictive. Maybe it is some light savory and salt acting as a gentle support- sweet cream butter. There is Lao Shan bean, but it is a quiet force playing nicely in the background, walking on light tip toe so as not to disturb the calm coziness of the scene. Reminds me in a way of a quiet parent who picks you up to takes you to bed after you’ve fallen asleep on the living room floor. You remember them, you know it happened (counted on it, in fact), but there was no disruption to your dreaming.
Something in the taste also reminds me of Japanese green teas that have been dusted with matcha. I have a feeling that this would appeal more to the sensibilities of a lover of Japanese greens, even though grassy astringency is not actually rearing it’s head… grassiness is there more as a scent infusing the whole brew with a smooth, full mouth-feeling. It is a perfect, airy feeling of grass that is also solidly earthbound, mixed together with cozy cream.

More than anything with this picking, I am swept off to a place.

It’s a misty seashore, early in the morning. The air is cool and wet and smells of autumn, but there is also an intense warmth and coziness. You are standing in your robe with slippers on, in your fuzziest robe and blanket, watching the scene from warm within your woody cabin. A solitary retreat on the North Shore (except in this fantasy, the heat is on perfectly!). A feeling of subtle quiet, thoughtfulness… I’ve drawn a little heart here in the corner of my notes.
Or it is evening on that same sea/lake-shore after a long, full day. There is a crackling fire, and there are waves in the background. The ocean and water is so strong in this one, but it is that feeling of place.. of waves against rock.. not of brine.

Looking back on the description of this tea’s taste, I’m surprsed I can love it so well. Usually, I want my Lao Shan teas to taste like Lao Shan! The bean, the butter, the soil. This one is so much more subtle.. so much more of the autumn.. but the result is so lovely. The place that this tea takes me to is so strong. It feels like one of those original places of my own self.

- -(Tasting notes over: mini-proclamation begins)— —
Hurray for all of these autumn pickings! Who knew that tea could be so giving? Those who kowtow blindly at the Altar of Spring to the exclusion of all other tastes need to stop obsessing over questions of SUPERIOR GRADE this and TRADITIONAL SOURCES PROCLAIM that. Just quiet down for a moment and use your own tongue to appreciate all that tea is trying to offer you. Discover your own preferences, but not before you open yourself to new possibilities and taste with your own self.

Listen to the tea, and appreciate. It’ll never let you down.

This is for the 2012 harvest. I noticed there isn’t a separate tea log for the new harvest, so I’m just adding it here.

I brewed this in my 12oz mug. It brews several times, I start with short steeps (about 20-30seconds) working up to 2 minutes. I can usually get about 5 steepings this way with plenty of flavor.

This tea is creamy, beany, smooth as usual. Like soy milk. It’s good. This harvest, this year, seems to have more smokey notes to it with a hint of a salt note. I get a nice oatmeal note mostly in the aroma, but definitely some smoke and a hint of a roasty note. This is not a bad thing, I typically don’t like smoke, but it fits this tea, this harvest. It’s more bold, more robust, but not in the way that a black tea is, it is in its own way. This tea, no matter the harvest, is always a pleasant companion.

Story
I’m always a little hesitant about telling stories, I feel as if I’m letting something so terribly personal out to the world, as if I am somehow judged for my memories. This story is a new one, one that I am always even more hesitant to tell people. Whenever I tell people this story I know they judge me. I feel as if I am put on a higher pedestal because of it and I am unable to live up to it.

Today is Veteran’s Day, I want to honor the veterans who are serving, those who have served and those who have paid the ultimate price. I have comrades in each of those categories. Some are family, some are friends, most were coworkers. Yes, I am a veteran. I had served 5 years active duty, I was a helicopter mechanic, and yes I did go overseas to the Middle East.

But in my eyes I did my job. I did nothing more, I did not sacrifice anything more than my own personal comforts and some frame of mind. I feel, if anything, that my eyes were opened to the world, my mind broadened. I learned to live with less, a more simplistic lifestyle, for the better, that I didn’t need all these materialistic things to keep me happy. I learned what I really needed to keep me alive and healthy and happy. Food, shelter, companionship, family. I also meet my husband in the military.

I was in a war zone, but I never fought. I just repaired the damage. And in many ways I am thankful for that. I know many that have, and not a single one comes back the same. Never. I never wanted to be a destroyer, I wanted to help, not hurt. Even if all I did was repair helicopters, those helicopters were used for anti-piracy, cargo and mail loading, and as air ambulance. There was an incident were those that I worked with died in one of our helicopters. Four people I worked with gone in a flash. Investigators never did find out what was the cause. That was 6 years ago, almost 7. It was within my first six months of actual service.

Twice a year, once in January when they died, and on today, I think of them. I think of those I worked next to, served with, served after me and before me and no matter how hard I try I cry every time I hear taps. It’s amazing how such a simple piece of music can carry such emotion and memories. So, to those who have served, to those who are serving, to the families, and to those who have sacrificed everything, Thank you.

I have only skimmed the tasting notes on this one as I am not feeling well. This is my comfort tea for today. I did notice in my skimming of the notes that many people seem to turn to this tea in times of illness or emotional upset. This seems to be the go to tea for that sort of thing.
It sure is interesting for a green tea. Its one everyone should try.
I just want to slink back onto the sofa and indulge in this one.
Roasty, toasty, vegetal yet chocolaty – a bizarre mix that just works for me!
Sorry for such a lame tasting note, need to get rid of this incessant headache and clear the sinuses.
Next time I will use less leaf and or lower the water temp – seems to be a little finicky but I love it none the less.

Next to my computer I have a cardboard box with all the teas that I haven’t posted about yet. That is to ensure that nothing gets truly forgotten without at least a post. Auggy’s care-package was so large that it made me think I needed a bigger box. And then I did a reality check and realised that it’s not the fact that the box is too small that’s the problem. It’s the fact that I’m not always very good at emptying it.

This one also came from Auggy. I could have sworn I had had it before, but apparently this is not the case. I can’t seem to find any posts about it at any rate. I’ve had the spring harvest before, and I remember this because it was sent to me by someone who told me that the spring harvest was WAY BETTER than whatever it was I had had before which apparently wasn’t autumn harvest.

This one smelled all vegetal and spinach-y. I’m not very experienced with green tea, so I can’t do much in the way of flavour analyses here, but it reminded me of sencha. Somehow it just sort of felt like it wanted to be Japanese. This is very difficult to explain why, so just try to suspend disbelief here and accept that it just felt Japanese.

The flavour was almost exactly the same as the aroma. Again, vegetal, spinach-y and a funny wannabe-Japanese vibe.

And that’s all I can think of to say, really. I’m not sufficiently used to green tea to go any further than that (although it seems to me that I once was?) but it was an enjoyable cup

Ah, hot buttery greens!
This is the 2nd tea from November’s Tea of the Month Club that I received from Verdant. The letter David included suggested having the Banzhang Farmers’ coop sheng first, which I did. Then as a contrast, having this green tea next. There are also suggestions for mixing them together, and he also sent some of his mixture of puffed Minnesota wild rice & puffed OG jasmine rice, which can be combined with either or both teas.

Right now I’m just having the green tea, and it is tasty. The flavor is rich, butter, and green bean-like, a true contrast to the darker toasty flavor of the Sheng. The mouth-feel is creamy, like steel cut oats cooked in the crockpot all night.

True confession: Initially when I got this month’s selections, I was a little disappointed, as I already have both teas in my (ever expanding) collection. But I DO like the pairing, and really, it’s just more tea for me to drink and enjoy. I’ll try his combo ideas and probably share the results later. Enjoy the day!

This came as a sample in my last order from Verdant. I was very surprised to find that this does smell a lot like cocoa – intriguing! I steeped it for around 3 minutes at 175 F or so. I may have used a bit too much leaf however.

I am finding this slightly less sweet and more vegetal than the spring Laoshan green. It has a full and rich flavor, definitely green beans are the predominant note here. I felt it got a bit pungent so I may need to revise my steeping parameters. I like it though…

Second steep here at 2 minutes was a lot better, I guess you don’t need much with this tea!

Received a sample of this with my recent order. I’m glad I saved it until this week.

The past three weeks have been completely overwhelming. The dog going missing, work getting wrapped around the axle, complications for Liz with school and my first disc golf tournament this past weekend on a course I’m really not strong enough to throw at par.

So this week is a bit of a calm after several storms. And this is the right tea for that calm.

One thing I love about drinking really fine tea, is that it helps you realize all the things you couldn’t put your finger on about other teas you’ve had. We sampled a lot of green teas from TeaVivre recently, and also the ones Liz brought back from Japan, and I was always looking for some magic balance of strong, green flavors, pan roast flavors and soft sweetness that none of them was really up to providing. It can be a very frustrating chase, especially when you aren’t 100% sure what it would taste like if it were what you wanted.

This tea has it all. Barely. I’m into my fourth or fifth steep and the liqueur is still very light and very delicate. But it isn’t weak. There is that soft sweetness, but it is backed up with genuine greenness and the touch of the pan.

As much fun as it is to keep trying lots of teas, I do find myself often thinking “now that I found this, that fills this role, and I don’t need anything else, I’ll just keep this stocked.”

But we all know I won’t do that. :-)

I don’t generally review a tea more than once. But the circumstances around this latest brew of one of my favorite Laoshan greens compelled me.

You can read my previous review of this tea to get a sense of how I steep it, as not much has changed. I still use a 2 part glass tea infuser with small slits in the inner glass brewing chamber, the only difference is I decanted into my Finum double wall cup. It’s just the perfect size for me. Somewhere along the line I transitioned from drinking tea like it was trucker coffee in 16+oz cups to going smaller and more refined. I do however still go down and dirty at work with a portable jar system, like the guys I saw on the train in China on a visit years ago. There’s something to the 1/2 day steep. I rarely will do that with my more temperamental teas, otherwise I feel like I’m throwing them away. Speaking of throwing them away. This is why I felt I needed to post today:

So I had a good solid nights sleep, woke to some of my Teavivre Organic Longjing and then went about my day. A few steepings of that tight Dragonwell, carried me through to the afternoon/early evening, when I was inspired to enjoy something different. Having slept so well, I wanted to take care with caffeine content late in the day. I didn’t t want to go into the week unrested. So I’m looking at my teas, and thinking maybe a black on a cooler evening… or maybe I’ll pull out a sample and give it a shot; all too caffeine unpredictable. I briefly consider an oolong, but then think maybe this Autumn Harvest Laoshan from last year would be nice. Kinda vegetal for a cool winter evening, but what the heck.

I’ve got it in a nice double-lidded tin that really seems to keep it fresh. I pop the lids and find to my dismay there’s really not much left, maybe 1/2 a cup of leaves. Tea’s meant for drinking though, right? So I consider my brewing options and decide to go with what I know works.

I grab a spoon to measure out a couple teaspoons. Somewhere between taking it out of the container and transferring to my brewing system I catch an edge, and a heaping teaspoon of my precious Laoshan Green gets dumped on the floor. And this is where I contemplate, “I can save this.”

Mind you I’d spent a good part of the day noticing how filthy my floor was, how the fur balls from my cats were rolling around the joint like tumbleweeds. I’d thought to myself, we really need to clean this place. With our work schedule, my wife and I had spoiled ourselves with occasional visits from a cleaning service. I was thinking, A) We both needed to clean up ourselves more (I never once judged my wife) or B) Occasional visits by our cleaning service needed to be more frequent.

But there I was looking down at a filthy kitchen floor, partially covered with dirty laundry piled neatly according to color & fabric type, wondering how much of this tea could be salvaged. It would take much longer than 3 seconds. I could possibly sift some of the dirty bath towels into the sink and get some fairly reasonable leaf, but the floor, not so much. Between the crumbs, dust and cat hair, not to mention whatever I couldn’t see, I had to accept this was a loss.

That’s the kind of tea this is. The kind of tea you’ll consider steeping off the floor. Need I say more?

I finished off the last of my stash of this tea last night. Just coming off a rather bad stomach flu, so I decided to celebrate the end of my insanely boring bland diet of the past few days by making this.

I brewed it Jingshan style, which is by far my fave way of making greens. 7g of tea (in a brewing basket) to 12oz of water in a tall glass. Brewed five times, starting at 20 secs and increasing as I saw fit. I split the tea with my sister, who was at my place last evening, and saved a glass for sticking into the fridge.

Dry leaf smells deeply vegetal and crisp. Impossibly dark green and curled little leaves. Wet, the vegetal note expands into a buttery goodness that is just mouthwatering. My sister actually ate some of the wet leaves. “Tastes like the tea,” she offered. Well, not entirely specific, but it made us giggle.

And the flavour, oh the flavour. This is definitely a tea to brew correctly – oversteeped the taste is a little bit overwhelming on the vegetal notes, and the sweetness doesn’t come out to play.

But I was firing on all barrels last night. Vegetal, yes, but buttery and even nutty. I was reminded of biting into a salted (and perfectly buttered) corn on the cob. The tea itself isn’t salty, mind, just an image in my head. You’ve got the savoury vegetal notes at the forefront, buttery and delicious, fading into sweetness as the sip ends. I’m not sure I ever picked up on the cocoa, but that hardly detracts from the beauty of this tea. It’s more that I’m still training my tastebuds to find things. ;)

Not sure how I EVER confused the Laoshan Black with this, by the way – the liquor is a perfect clear and light jade. Everything about this tea is so green and beautiful!

One of those teas I need to keep in my stash at all times, I think. Though I may wait for the spring harvest to arrive before I reorder, and the anticipation is already killing me!

~

PS – I have to thank Krystaleyn for the word “savoury” for greens! Definitely apt.